First-time use of historic law ending 17-year contract fight announced at UFW event with Pictsweet workers & community backers

Workers from Pictsweet Mushroom Farms in Ventura will join community supporters at a Thursday news conference announcing victory in their 17-year battle to win a United Farm Workers union contract. It is the first time California farm workers have benefited from a landmark 2002 state law providing for binding mediation when bargaining drags on without resolution.
 
On Feb. 13, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board adopted a report from state Arbitrator Gerald R. McKay deciding the terms of a union contract for Pictsweet mushroom workers who have labored without a UFW agreement since 1987. Pictsweet officials decided not to appeal the decision.
 
“How fitting that Pictsweet mushroom workers are the first California farm workers to benefit from the historic binding mediation law that allowed them to end their 17-year nonviolent fight for a union contract,” declared UFW President Arturo Rodriguez as he officially called off the union’s more than three-year-old boycott of Pictsweet mushrooms. “This victory is a testament to the Pictsweet workers’ resolve and sacrifice. The union looks forward to working cooperatively with the workers and management to grow and prosper the company.”
 
Among provisions of the contract hammered out by the arbitrator and approved by the ALRB are pay increases, complete employer-paid family health care coverage, paid holidays and vacations, guaranteed seniority, grievance and arbitration protections and a union plant safety committee.
 
Who: Pictsweet mushroom workers and community supporters, UFW Secretary-Treasurer Tanis Ybarra.
 
What: News conference announcing the first farm workers’ union contract won under California¹s historic binding mediation law.
 
When: 12 noon, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2004.
 
Where: UFW office, 920 “A” St. (at 9th St.), Oxnard, 93030 (local phone: 805-486-9674).
 

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